First Trip Across The Pond

First of all I'll preface this with the advice that IF you decide to go Transatlantic, either plan on going First Class, where you *might* sleep, or if you decide to go coach just don't plan on sleeping at all. That way, if you do sleep it will be a pleasant surprise.

That said we'll just move on.

Our plane left Salt Lake on Saturday, October 15th at 7:10 am. We arrived in Frankfurt Germany via Phoenix-Philadelphia at about 9:30 am Germany time Sunday the 16th (which is about 1:30 am Salt Lake time). Our arrival was a miracle. At least to me, because I thought that flight would NEVER end. It just kept going and going and going. I have a new idea of Hell and it closely resembles a transatlantic seat in coach right behind the bulkhead with a view into first class where they're actually RECLINING and being served a hot breakfast and orange juice in GLASS glasses *with cloth napkins!*, unlike my place where they *say* your seat is capable of being in a position other than 'upright' but it sure doesn't feel like it. My spine and head and rear can testify to this. I know I looked scary when facing the passport officials but they stamped my passport anyway. I guess they're used to people looking like that, (and the US dollar is VERY welcome).

 This is the pickup area at the Frankfurt International Airport.

Munchen is actually what we call Munich...which begs the question: Why don't we just call it what they call it? It IS their city. Do they secretly call Salt Lake City something else entirely? I don't know...

The landscape is very reminiscent of our New England. Rolling hills, trees, rural farm scenes etc... The only thing that let me know that we were in Germany was the architecture and the signs in German.

They drive on the same side of the road that we do, their steering wheel is on the same side, they're cars tend to be smaller, the roads narrower, the city designs less green. Which isn't to say that they're not beautiful, just less landscaping with green things like trees, shrubs etc...

Funny thing - Their exit signs look like this:

Pronounced (h)ousefahrt (House without the 'H' but it's sure tempting to pronounce it with a genteel Auss). For Americans anything with the word 'fart' in it is going to get at least a smirk. There's even a T-shirt sold at the army base that says:

Pretty funny huh? Had I not gone to Germany already in the know about this little tidbit I probably would have asked the same questions because the signs are EVERYWHERE. Just think of all the places you see our EXIT sign. Yeah...all those same places. The word for 'Entrance' is Einfahrt.

Jeni picked us up at about 10:30 or so Sunday morning. It was so wonderful to see Jeni, Fitz and Swede!! As tired as I was I didn't sleep at all until we went to bed that night, even though I'd been up for more than 36 hours by that time. That's what happiness will do to a person. We saw Stephanie, Rue and Al when we finally got to Bergrheinfeld about 2 hours later. Oh how I'd missed my daughters! It was just lovely. Rue is a darling, sweet baby. Swede is as charming as ever and Fitz is a sunny little entertainer. We went for a long walk with the kids in Bergrheinfeld ending up at a little park close to home.

We only saw Al Sunday afternoon and a little bit Monday morning and then he was gone for the rest of our visit on field training exercises with his platoon.

Monday we spent visiting the Army Base in Schweinfurt and aldstadt (old town) Schweinfurt. I love aldstadt ANYWHERE in Germany. They do such a great job preserving their old cities. The courtyards are all cobbled and people just wander around feeding the pigeons. Fitz and Swede love chasing the poor birds but they're so fat they probably need the exercise anyway and it's so nice to watch the kids have such fun doing something so simple. These pictures were taken with Schweinfurt City Hall in the background. Stephanie took a tour of this building and has some nice pictures.

While Steven and Jeni fed the kids at McDonalds, Stephanie and I went hunting for real food. We came back with 4 Döners for the grownups. It's a type of German sandwich which isn't German at all, it's Turkish. Which doesn't really  matter in the least because it was first real food I'd had in a while and was so scrumptious I can't believe I ate the whole thing! It had shredded cabbage instead of lettuce, red cabbage too. Very, very yummy.

Jeni picked up some very decadent special order cupcakes that afternoon that a friend had made and we got to meet her friend Jessica and her children when they came for the cupcake party. I went with Stephanie to the local grocery store EDEKA and picked up some stuff for dinner and I was able to see a bit of the town and get a good look at the church whose bells haunted me almost every night, ringing every 15 minutes so you are never in doubt as to what time it is. It's a beautiful old church, by the way, just rather insistent that everyone know what time it is.

It was a bit damp for a few days and we didn't venture forth much. We played with the kids and Steven treated us girls to the Day Spa on base where I got a massage from a large German Fraulein (very strong, never been slapped on the back that hard before) and Jeni and Stephanie got pedicures. It was really nice. On Friday we went to the Mall...which is really just like any other mall except that English isn't spoken. Which does change the shopping experience considerably. We let the kids run around in the play areas...

...and I discovered that eating establishments don't provide any plastic-ware! Just silverware. It became very apparent that everyone is very conscious of what is thrown away. They recycle EVERYTHING. Even in the restrooms they don't have paper towels to dry one's hands with, they have either air dryers or those big dispensers with huge rolls of fabric. They don't want to have to recycle if they can avoid it. Commendable.

This post is getting a bit lengthy so I'll pause here and continue later. Maybe then I'll be able to access some of Stephanie's pictures too.